October 30, 2007

When we first heard about Canton Ginger Liqueur, we had a pretty good idea we were going to like it. After all, we love ginger like it's our job, and marrying it with cognac can go under our "why didn't we think of this?" file. What we didn't expect, however, was that we'd fall in love.

October 29, 2007

We've been sitting on our Bottle Popper review for a little bit, but you shouldn't read into that. In fact, we've been itching to write it up but haven't had a chance. Why, you ask? Because the Bottle Popper has done something we didn't think possible - it's added even more fun to opening up a beer (which is great enough on its own). We're not going to say it opens your beer any faster or any more effectively than any other opener, but it brings back that "wow" factor you got when you first started cracking beers.

How does it do that? Here's the thing - you set it on top of the bottle, push down quickly, and suddenly the cap is hanging from the bottom of the Bottle Popper. If we were from a primitive culture, we'd say it was magic, but being the civilized creatures we are, we're pretty sure it's magnets.

It's funny - when we first broke it out the general reaction was "what the Hell do you need another bottle opener for?" People were intrigued when we showed them how it worked, but they didn't get fired up until we let them try for themselves. We heard "oohs," "aahs," and an honest to goodness "Oh my God!" And there you have it - is that kind of magic worth the few extra dollars for a new bottle opener? We think it might be.

October 23, 2007

There was a time when a company wouldn't dream of marketing a product to the ladies and give it a name like "X-Rated". That time is long gone, however, and we're lucky enough to have two products with that adult name now - both an unflavored vodka and a fruity liqueur.

The question on everyone's lips, however, is - do they live up to their racy name? Let's just say we enjoyed ourselves enough during the tasting to be just this side of, as Borat would say, a "romance explosion".

August 10, 2007

[Update: Looks like the Beersudz folks were upgrading their shopping cart and there was a little SNAFU that caused the site to say there was no shipping available in most areas. It's all fixed now, so you can head on over and snap one up.]

This just in - the Giant Jellyfish is big. Like, real big. When we first pulled it out of the packaging, we had no idea what we were in for, because we'd seen and used the regular sized Jellyfish beer bong (review). Before being inflated, the Giant didn't look too much different - it had a little more girth, yeah, and there were three tubes coming out of the bottom instead of one, but it didn't seem that far off. One Intern even commented that its inventors should have come up with a way for people to easily clip off one or two tubes to make it easier for less people to use it. After all, you weren't always going to have three people around who wanted to funnel, right?

July 25, 2007

If you've ever accidentally wandered into an elegant party while wearing your gym clothes, you'll have an inkling of how we felt cradling the bottle of Jean-Marc XO Vodka we received for review. Coming in around $50 a bottle, this is probably the most expensive vodka we've drunk, and we were a bit out of sorts before we started the review. We felt like we were in the presence of royalty - were we supposed to bow to it, or thank it for pouring into the glass?

Luckily, our thirst overcame our confusion and we were able to get the review done - find out how it measured up below.

June 7, 2007

One thing we really like in our booze is personality. Of course, the real important thing is the taste and quality, but it's great to see a little blush of cool in your drink. We're big fans of the marketing campaign for Reyka Vodka - they've got some humor going for them, and we like the tongue-in-cheek things they're doing with their Iceland connection.

Check out some of the humor on their website (link below), and find out if the flavor of Iceland is everything we ever hoped it could be.

June 4, 2007

A man more clever than us recently noted that if people keep monkeying around with vodka and adding more and more flavors, pretty soon they'll invent gin. That might not be such a bad thing - gin was a popular libation among drunkards for a lot of years, but with in recent years vodka has slipped in and taken hold of a lot of its market niche. Some folks have decided they want some additional complexity in their flavored white spirit, and they're doing some very interesting things with gin.

Not the least of these is Whitley Neill, a gin "inspired by Africa, made in England." With nine different botanicals in it, it's not designed to club you over the head with juniper as some gins have been known to do. Plus, it contains fruit from the Baobab tree - how can you go wrong with something distilled from the "Tree of Life?"

May 30, 2007

We don't spend much time reading our horoscope anymore. We've found if we want bland, overly generalized advice with little practical use, we'll watch Dr. Phil. One thing that's picked up our interest in all things horoscopical (we know - that's not a word), however, is Zodiac Vodka, a high end potato spirit made right here in the states.

Does Zodiac live up to its astrological trappings? Read on to find out.

May 24, 2007

We've already called 2007 as the year Cachaca will take the U.S. by storm, and the bottle of Agua Luca we've got sitting here in front of us is one of the contenders hoping to do so. Marketed as an ultra-premium label, Agua Luca is coming straight from Brazil to your glass - and being filtered 12 times in between.

Read on to find out how Agua Luca measures up to our demanding requirements for whipping up Caipirinhas.

May 17, 2007

Back when we first found out about Zyr Vodka, we were pleasantly intrigued by their ballsy claim to be the best Russian vodka ever. There's nothing wrong with a little hubris when you're marketing a product, and we like how they went right for the top. Of course, when you make a claim like that you have to have some pretty serious chops, right?

Just think - in so many people's minds, Russia is the home of vodka. Hence, saying you're the best Russian vodka ever is some pretty heady stuff. Zyr relies on their 9:5:3 ratio (nine filtrations, five distillations, three tastings) for every batch to get to the level of quality they're trying to achieve.

Does Zyr live up to our drastically inflated hopes? Read on to find out.